Best of Both Worlds: Stage Mashups in PlayStation All-Stars

Drawing upon nearly two decades of PlayStation lore, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale assembles a dream roster of legendary fighters plucked from the annals of PlayStation history. But the characters are only half the story: Developer SuperBot Entertainment has invested much blood, sweat, and tears into the game’s elaborate fighting stages, each of which fuses two classic PlayStation brands into a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

“We have a huge team of designers, artists, and programmers working on the characters, but we have a team that’s at least equally large working on the levels,” Game Director Omar Kendall told PlayStation.Blog in a revealing new interview. “It’s a huge undertaking in a game like this, because the levels have such a loud voice.”

The inspiration to fuse two seemingly unrelated game worlds came early in the game’s development, with the now-familiar Hades level serving as the germ of the concept. “We had this idea of a giant Hades wreaking havoc on the playspace, when suddenly this happy-go-lucky music kicks in and the Patapons come over the hill to overthrow him,” Kendall remembered. “Once that came together, we knew we were onto something.”

Gameplay rests firmly at the heart of each stage’s design. “We start by sitting around a table, a bunch of designers and artists, trying to figure out an interesting combat space to fight in,” Kendall said. Sometimes that manifests itself as a specific gameplay interaction, whether it’s Dreamscape’s ever-growing level architecture (a nod to LittleBigPlanet’s level creator) or the vertical scrolling in Alden’s Tower (a homage to inFAMOUS’s final stage).

“Some characters excel against enemies that are in front of them, others directly above and below them,” Kendall explained, “so we create playspaces that leverage those advantages and disadvantages.” Case in point: Chop-Chop Master Onion’s tiny dojo is designed to create a uniquely claustrophobic play style, while Metropolis is wide-open and favors longer-range strategies.

“Technically, the process can be extremely complicated based on the ideas we’re introducing,” Kendall admitted. “So many of the levels in the game are essentially one-offs. We’ll create a lot of technology to construct a specific type of encounter, and then toss it and build a totally different experience for the next level.”

Though inefficient, that approach is yielding some dazzling results. Such is the case with the game’s exhilarating mashup between UNCHARTED 3 and 2013’s BioShock Infinite. “When we first watched the demonstration of Columbia, it left a strong and lasting impact,” Kendall remembered. “We knew we wanted to incorporate that world and those characters into one of our levels.” Then UNCHARTED 3’s famous cargo plane sequence entered the picture, and the rest is history.

Other times, an interesting visual contrast might spark the inspiration for a mashup. Time Station begins firmly rooted in the whimsical Ape Escape universe. Halfway through the match, a teleportation error sees the Resistance 3 universe bleed into the environment — including a monstrous, rampaging Widowmaker.

It’s important to note that these stage evolutions are no mere cosmetic flourish: new hazards, new level layouts, and new strategies develop organically as the stages bleed from one universe to the next, creating a truly dynamic combat arena.

Be sure to watch our new video documentary to get an inside look at SuperBot’s process for constructing stages in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Which stage mashup are you most interested in playing so far?

STOP THE MADNESS !!! The roster is great. you guys obsession with Wander from ICO is way off.
(1) ICO is a awesome game, but what moves/supers/story can you do with her in this game ? Not much, she is not a good fit.
(2) Yes I do agree with Crash. Wampa fruit bazooka super would work, also
(3) Spryo. Super Fire Ball/ monster screen clearing Flame super. Yeh that would work.
(4) Snake is also MILKED OUT TO THE MAX at this point. He has 2 more games coming that he may be in, so there is no need for him in this game.
(5) Cloud is also a staple on the Playstation, so yeh I would like to see him.
Its sad that so much hard work is being put into this game by SB, and so many of you SPOILED GAMERS are jumping on the COMPLAIN BANWAGON…This game needs its own identity, instead SOME OF YOU want it to be a character roster clone to other games. Sorry but I dont want that. Keep up the good work SB.

to 103# you have no IDEA why people are mad, you are a superbot cock riding fan boy. IF you say the wanderer from sotc(he’s a DUDE not a girl) doesn’t deserve to be in this game but NARIKO does, you are messed. and you’re complaining about spyro?!?!? and snake? who is WAY better than raiden, is more ps oriented than RAIDEN NO one likes raiden, Big boss or snake. Superbot sent out to make a game for ps fans and to take the very best ps characters, BUT THEY DIDN’T they did the complete opposite!

SniperWolf323. You are so busy raving and ranting you are talking just as much rubbish as anyone else. Everyone knows that Raiden is more PlayStation oriented then Snake because was there on the PlayStation system alone. Snake was on the PC and Nintendo systems before he was even on a PlayStation. So saying that Snake is more PS oriented then Snake is madness. And just because you didn’t get everyone you wanted doesn’t mean they choose the worst. Many people are happy about Spike, Sir Dan, Nariko, Parappa, Sly, Ratchet and Jak all of them PlayStation favorites. Just because you and some others aren’t happy with the roster don’t speak for all of us. Don’t call people names just because they aren’t foaming at the mouth like you and some people are and not buying the game because you didn’t get everyone you wanted. There are other aspects to the game besides the characters that you are going to ignore because of characters choices. It just makes you sound immature and crazy

@ Elvick_ . Unlikely. He probably hasn’t even seen how much more detail has been put into the game since the first beta. He is just talking out of his @$$ like many people here. They don’t have a clue but have to put their two cents in anyway..

To everyone complaining about the lack of certain third party characters, you can’t really blame Superbot for that. Let’s take Cloud for example, in all likelyhood, Square just refused to let them use him, he doesn’t have an upcoming game to promote.

The third party companies couldn’t care less about representing the history of Playstation as proven by the new Dante’s inclusion and Raiden, they’re there to promote their upcoming games, nothing more. As far as the third parties go, this is a “promote our new game” opportunity. They want to utilize the potential to sell copies of their new games.

Btw I never even expected a Final Fantasy rep to be in the game considering how stingy SE can be with their characters. Despite how whored out Cloud is within the FF series, Square has no reason whatsoever to give him to Superbot for this game, so it doesn’t surprise me.

I’m starting to think Crash, Spyro and Snake are all going to be an in-game surprise. I don’t like Raiden in there. They should add The Boss from MGS3. She was an amazing character and she was the one who taught Snake how to fight!